


Beyond The Veil

by TheatricalAssassin



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alcohol, Depersonalization, Earth is a Death World, Gen, Gender-Neutral Character, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Humans Are Deathworlders, Humans are space orcs, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Late Night Writing, Vent Writing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-15
Updated: 2017-05-15
Packaged: 2018-11-01 02:21:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10912362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheatricalAssassin/pseuds/TheatricalAssassin
Summary: The "Graveyard Shift" was not one that anyone ever really wanted, but work is work, and work needs to be done.When a noise complaint comes in Sialith has to see another side to humans he didn't expect.





	Beyond The Veil

**Author's Note:**

> Had some Bad Feels™ and had to write them out, why not do Earth is Death World/Humans are Space Orcs? i hadn't seen anyone do mental illness yet so ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> sorry that this isn't up to my normal standard, it does seem to mostly be Vent Fic

Security wasn't a flashy job. It never was. As one of the humans might put it, it was “boring” but it was an important job nonetheless. Being able to protect one’s crew and cargo was a mark of a well ran ship, and Sialith was intent on keeping it that way so long as he worked here. Making his rounds down through the mess hall the ship was silent, more than once whenever he’d encounter one of the humans onboard they’d ask if he was working the “graveyard shift” -something that was not nearly as morbid as he originally thought, with it simply meaning a very late shift occurring after most people would have retired for the evening- but not many were still milling about unless they had work that needed to be done. His communicator beeped, looking down he saw that it was another guard.

“Sialith? Are you near habitation?” the crewmate asked

“I am, why?” He responded

“I need you to go investigate a noise complaint, I would but I’m in the Hydroponics deck.”

“Affirmative, I will report back once the issue has been settled. Sialith out.”

Turning on his heel he made his way to the habitation suites, the noise complaint was probably directed at a human but even if it wasn’t it wouldn’t be hard to figure out which one was causing the trouble. As he approached the halls he began to hear what was the source of it, music. He could hear it down the hall, he couldn’t quite understand what the lyrics were but he did understand the intent. Sorrow. He walked faster. When he approached the door that was the loudest he gave it a hard knock. When no one responded he knocked again. The song continued as if he were not there. One last time he knocked on the door, he couldn’t hear anything over the music, he wasn’t sure if the occupant was able to hear him.

He slide his ID through the scanner and overrode the lock to open the door. He saw his crewmate dressed in their “pajamas” sitting on the floor holding a glass bottle. He recognized this one as Caelum, a new transfer. Tentatively he walked inside, vae didn’t seem to acknowledge his presence. He looked around for the radio, finding it sitting on vaer desk, and he turned it down low. He needed vaer to be able hear him. Kneeling down before the human he wasn’t sure how to start this, for a moment he thought it might be best to just take them to medbay and let them deal with vaer but he quickly decided against that. Whatever this is, taking vaer somewhere that vae does not necessarily want to go will only make it worse.

“Private Caelum,” He started “Are you able to hear me?”

Vae looked up at him, just barely glancing over vaer glasses, and looked back down at the floor

“What do you want.” vae mumbled

He was taken aback, he wasn’t sure how to respond in a situation like this. None of them had been trained yet for responding to humans. As Warrant Officer Orion put it once, he’s “flying by the seat of his pants”

“I wanted to make sure that you’re okay.” He didn’t move, waiting for the sullen crewmate to respond

“I am fit to work if that’s what you’re asking.” Caelum said taking another drink “Not right now, but in the morning I will be sober.”

“That... is not what I asked” He said sitting down “Do you require assistance?”

For the first time vae made eye contact, Sialith couldn’t identify what exactly Caelum was feeling. He wasn’t sure if they were feeling.

“I’m not sure you could help.” Vae said after a long silence

Was this human stubbornness? Sialith wasn’t a stranger to humans refusing help for really any reason, usually pride, but this didn’t look like that kind of thing. Why wouldn’t he be able to help? Is it something medical? Maybe he may need to take vaer to medbay after all.

“Perhaps if you tell me what is the reason for your distress I might be able to, or take you to someone who can.” He said evenly, remembering in training that humans do not take well to someone raising their voice to them.

Vaer eyes started to glisten, and vaer breathing got hitched, a pang of fear was sent down Sialith’s spin. Just before he reached for vaers body Caelum spoke.

“It’s just... I’m not a real person, I’m not a real human being and the fact that everyone seems to either think I am despite me knowing full well that I’m _not_ or everyone knowing that I’m not and just pretending that I am it’s just... it’s just...” Caelum wasn’t able to finish the sentence and fell silent

Last he heard, humans had not perfected AI. Everything they had was very rudimentary and not anywhere near the levels that Caelum was describing. The likelihood of any of this was, extremely low. Human scientists were careless, but they were not so careless as to let a fully sentient android think they are human, they were cruel, but not that cruel. 

“I... do not understand?” he said simply “Do you need me to take you somewhere?”

“No.” Vae sniffed “Just, just let me drink.”

Leaving vaer here did not sound like a good idea. If vae would not come with him then he would have to ensure that vae would be able to be alright until morning when vae would possibly have a clearer head about this.

“That would go against protocol.” He said firmly

“Why?”

“Because currently it appears that you are at risk of harm, and it is my duty to ensure the safety of all crewmembers, regardless of where that harm is coming from.” Caelum didn’t respond and instead looked down at the floor. Tears streaming down vaer face still. “I do not understand what you are talking about, but I want to. I advise that you do stop drinking.”

Caelum looked at the bottle and finished it off. Vae remained in silence as vae threw it into the wastebin adjacent from vaer. It didn’t seem like vae was going to speak again, if that was the case then perhaps pushing it was a bad idea. Being untrained in this area there was a likelihood of only making it worse, he couldn't take the risk, not as a security guard. 

“Can you make me a promise, Private Caelum?” he asked.

“What’s that.” it was more of a statement than a question, but a response was a response, and Sialith would take it.

“I would like to have breakfast with you before your next shift starts. I think it would be nice for us to share a meal together, as friends.” It was difficult to keep his voice even, he wasn’t sure how vae was going to react or if vae would react at all.

Silence was suffocating,

“0800 sound good to you?” Caelum’s voice monotone

“That sounds splendid. I will meet you in the mess”

He left the room, hearts pounding against his rib cage. He had never seen a human acting in such a way and what vae had said still echoed in his mind. The distress that was caused by the perception of not being real... he couldn’t even begin to imagine or understand. With the limited information that they have, perhaps it would be for the best of the collective for him _to_ understand it. Get the information from the source, from the one experiencing it. Then he might be able to understand, and maybe help if he can.

**Author's Note:**

> I tend to get really depersonalized, it's part of DPDR (Depersonalization-Derealization Disorder), as well as other mental illnesses. I have dpdr and i cannot tell you how hard it was to be able to articulate how it feels to know that you as a person do not exist, that you aren't a real human being. 
> 
> I've just dumped very personal stuff like this on someone before but it's usually over text as I usually am unable to get through the crying because whenever I do talk about this stuff I'm in therapy and we're talking about other upsetting things and by the time we get to this I'm already unable to speak coherently so we never get anywhere. 
> 
> I really wanted this alien to genuinely want to help. So that's kind of why he seems to go above and beyond his duty in seeing what's what with this human rather than just "yo turn it the fuck down" and leaving (or leaving right after turning it down)


End file.
